Bluto
Bluto (also known as Brutus) is a cartoon and comics character created in 1932 by Elzie Crisler Segar as a one-time villain, named "Bluto the Terrible", in his Thimble Theatre comic strip (which was renamed after Popeye). Bluto made his first appearance September 12 of that year. Fleischer Studios adapted him in 1933 to be the main antagonist of their theatrical Popeye animated cartoon series. Bluto is a large, bearded, strong fellow who serves as Popeye's nemesis and rival for the love of Olive Oyl. He mostly uses his physical brawn to accomplish what he is trying to do, but does display some ability for tactical planning. His voice is a very loud, harsh and deep one, with a bear-like growl between sentences or between words in sentences, and such growling contains words that often cannot be comprehended. Bluto, like Popeye, is attracted to Olive Oyl, and often attempts to kidnap her. However, with the help of some spinach, Popeye usually ends up defeating him. Some cartoons portray Popeye and Bluto as friends and Navy buddies, although Bluto usually turns on Popeye when an object of interest (usually Olive) is put between them. A prime example of this is the 1944 cartoon W'ere On Our Way to Rio. There are considerable inconsistencies in regard to Bluto's strength. In some episodes he is weaker than Popeye, usually resorting to underhanded trickery to win. Other times, Popeye stands no chance until he eats his spinach, while in other cartoons the two characters are evenly matched. Bluto is often portrayed as having a glass jaw: he has, on occasion, been knocked out by Olive Oyl and even by Popeye's infant ward Swee'Pea. Bluto is generally portrayed as of low intelligence, typically acting without thinking and utilizing brute force, which often signals his defeat at the hands of Popeye. On rare occasions Bluto tries to sabotage Popeye before confronting him, such as when he tried to thwart a foreseeable fight by using a forklift to steal Popeye's store of spinach cans, disposing of them in a garbage dump. Popeye's Island Adventures Bluto made his brand new debut in the new 2018 Popeye the Sailor reboot entitled Popeye's Island Adventures. Trivia *Bluto makes his first animated appearance in Popeye the Sailor which is a Betty Boop cartoon. *Dave Fleischer wanted Bluto's voice to resemble that of the character Red Flack in the 1930 film The Big Trail, played by Tyrone Power Sr. *In most cases, the name "Bluto" is used as a first name. In cartoons where Bluto portrays alternate characters, or "roles," the name can be used as a surname, as with lumberjack "Pierre Bluto" in the cartoon Axe Me Another and etiquette teacher "Professor Bluteau" in Learn Polikeness. *After the theatrical Popeye cartoon series ceased production in 1957, Bluto's name was changed to Brutus because it was incorrectly believed that Paramount Pictures, distributors of the Fleischer Studios (later Famous Studios) cartoons, owned the rights to the name "Bluto". King Features actually owned the name, as Bluto had been originally created for the comic strip. Due to a lack of thorough research, they failed to realize this and reinvented him as Brutus to avoid potential copyright problems. Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Popeye the Sailorman